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After researching and finally deciding what to actually put into my showreel, I got to work. As time went on it changed as I was creating more work that could be put into it, so there are multiple versions of my showreel:

Version 1:

Version 2, this time I added in some more dynamics work:

Version 3, I’ve added a Bifrost simulation and corrected the run cycle:

the latest version, another Bifrost simulation was added and the order changed:

I also had adjusted the Bus stop animation, trying to improve the movement of his leg while he’s sitting, the wireframe images were also changed: I managed to render out the lower poly wireframe. When smoothing my model (after hitting 3) I also pressed fn and the down arrow.

After having a class where we concentrated on Maya’s particles and what can be achieved from them: things such as a drip running down the side of a coke can and rain, the particles can be set to streaks to give the effect of rain. I wondered could I create this effect, including having the rain collide with a ground plane so I headed to youtube and found the tutorial below:

After watching the tutorial I then opened maya and had a go…

I then experimented with a turbulence field, to remove the uniform look of the rainfall, but I think I actually prefer the uniform look…

As I liked the uniform look I also experimented with adding an air field…

After having a class on Maya’s particles, I decided to experiment with the N-cloth feature, hoping to created something that I could put into my showreel. I had recently been watching an episode of ABC’s ‘Once Upon A Time’ (when am I not watching that programme…?) where the two clips below appeared (Smash the Mirror 4×08) and I was inspired to try something similar:

I really liked the effect of the particles moving through the air and the cracking effect created within the eye of the actress. Although I was after an effect similar to the clip below, how the particles were controlled:

I decided that I would try something similar to this effect using a head model that I had retopologised so that it would be useable. Using Maya’s Ncloth and a vortex field I created the effect below:

After a class on Maya’s particles and emitters, I decided I wanted to include some more dynamics work in my showreel, so I watched a couple of tutorials and decided to experiment with particles…
Using Maya’s mo-cap characters I created the scenes below:

Firstly I had one of the characters run and leave a trail of particles behind it…

I then had the same character run, hit the wall and explode into particles…

Finally I then had two runners run at one another before exploding into particles, I thought this would be the better of the three to render out. Before rendering I added in a camera movement to make it a little more exiting, along with giving the floor a reflective material to make it more appealing to the eye…

Seeing as we decided we would include the zombie and penguin rigs, I volunteered to animate the zombie in some way that the car would end up crashing through the fence…

Firstly I went back and fixed the run cycle we had created in class as mine had a limp throughout and I knew the zombie would be running towards the road to meet the car…

Fixed run cycle:

I did then decide to cycle the run, thinking that it would save time but that was not the case as you will see in the playlist below:

slightly terrifying…

I had also decided to have a go at making the zombie skip towards the car but it turned out the skip would be too slow of a movement to have the car react quickly to…

I thought the best thing to animate would be the zombie running towards the road and then tripping and falling onto the road, I thought instead of cycling a run I would just animate the length of run that I would need…

Falling in front of the car…

After showing it to a few of our team they suggested that maybe the zombie should react to the fact the car has missed him – he nows shows a hint of relief…

A great video showing the possibilities of the pdi plug-in, unfortunately not all possible with the free version as it only allows for one fracture body to be generated…

I pulled together some of the assets created by the group to form a small set that I could use to experiment with the plug in…

I used the tutorial below as an example of how to use the plug-in as it’s kind of similar to what I was planning on creating (dinosaur smashing through a door… car smashing through a fence…)

In my scene I have shattered part of the fence, the number of shards set to 32 and the shatter style set to wood splinters and the main axis the longest.

The ground plane set as a rigid body, the static type – anything that was close to the collision but that I didn’t was affected was set as a static body…

The car, because it was an animated object was set as a kinematic body, with the mesh option set as animated.

A fracture body then had to be created for the shattered fence, the fractured body settings should be changed to static and to break at first hit… and then the simulation is baked…

The only problem I seem to have run into is that my shattered fragments are going through the ground plane, however this doesn’t happen when I select use maya grid as ground, however having no ground plane would look a little silly in the renders so I’ll juts have to find a solution…